Awards Shortlist 2025
The UUSU Learning & Teaching Awards recognise and celebrate our outstanding staff and academic reps across a range of categories supporting the student journey at UU. What makes these awards stand out is they are completely student-led, organised, and managed through UUSU. Nominations come from students, with staff only eligible to submit in the Academic Rep category. We received 575 nominations this year showing the impact of hundreds of individual staff members, teams and reps. The judging and shortlisting panel was made up of student reps from across Faculties and the Doctoral College. Thanks to all the students and staff who made nominations and to our student shortlisting panel.
1
Dream Team Award - Staff Team of the Year
Interactive Media Team
PGCE Primary Team
School of Engineering Office
2
Igniting Student Ambition
Jessica Bates (Education)
Darren Berkland (Communication and Media)
Alison Hampton (Dept of Management, Leadership & Marketing)
3
Educator of the Year (Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences)
Erik Cownie (Applied Social & Policy Sciences)
Rosemary Craig (Law)
Denise MacDermott (Applied Social & Policy Sciences)
4
Educator of the Year (Faculty of Computing, Engineering & Built Environment)
Simon Fraser (Computing)
Mark McCartney (Engineering)
Philip Vance (Computing, Engineering & Intelligent Systems)
5
Educator of the Year (Faculty of Life and Health Sciences)
Felicity Hasson (Nursing and Paramedic Science)
Marian McLaughlin (Psychology)
Rosalind Rogers (Health Sciences)
6
Educator of the Year (Ulster University Business School)
Marc Duffy (Business Engagement Unit)
Qi Li (Accounting, Finance & Economics)
Helen McKenna (Business Engagement Unit)
7
Rising Star Award: Early Career Excellence
Ryan Adams (Sport and Exercise Science)
Laura Beattie (Communication and Media)
Muhammad Usman Hadi (Engineering)
8
PhD Supervisor of the Year
George Kernohan (Nursing and Paramedic Science)
Tony McGinn (Applied Social and Policy Sciences)
Helene McNulty (Biomedical Sciences)
9
Hidden Hero Award: Non-Teaching Excellence
Magdalena Lederer (Commercial Services)
Ronan Lunney (Belfast School of Art)
Nuala McCaffrey (Belfast School of Art)
Marianne Doherty (Law)
James Uhomoibhi (Engineering)
Muhammad Usman Hadi (Engineering)
11
Student Academic Rep of the Year
Tess Carter (Belfast School of Art)
Amjad Mohd Ansar Shaikh (Architecture and the Built Environment)
Sophie Stevens (Law)
12
Inspirational Award: Transformative Educational Approaches
Andrew Chambers (Nursing and Paramedic Science)
Gerard Gibson (Communication and Media)
Ian Thatcher (Arts and Humanities)